1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to discovery and modeling of hardware and software in a digital environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
A digital ecosystem is the complex, distributed, interconnected, heterogeneous elements of software applications, frameworks, protocols, toolkits, hardware processors, storage systems, networking routers, gateways, firewalls, and so on that make up a given information technology infrastructure (also referred to as an information processing system). The elements, relationships and technologies of a digital ecosystem are constantly changing, and are required to change, because of explicit or implicit dependencies on the rest of the world. The biggest influencers of digital ecosystems are usually not even considered to be a part of the ecosystem—that is, the people who own or manage one or more aspects of the ecosystem, who are driven by their own subjective desires, needs, goals, whims, and economics.
Managing such complex information technology infrastructures involves answering questions such as the following: How do you control one of these ecosystems? How do you manage it? How can you use it? How can you change it? How can you make it better? And perhaps most important, how can you extract value from it? One approach is to classify it: Catalog it. Document it. Diagram it. Create an organized taxonomy. Group like things together, and separate unlike things. But “like” in what way? Physical likeness? Vendor likeness? Technology likeness? Location likeness? Business application likeness? Presentation likeness? No universal classification scheme exists that can be used to create organized taxonomic hierarchies of every information technology infrastructure. Even if there were such a universal classification scheme, knowing what something is diminishes in importance when compared to knowing what it does—what it produces, consumes, controls or stores. And in most situations, knowing what something does is not sufficient without knowing what purpose it serves—Why is it necessary? What role does it play? What value does it enable?
An important prerequisite in managing a digital ecosystem is an understanding of which aspects of the ecosystem are relevant to the goals to be accomplished. Models can be used to allow people to specify the components and specific properties of components that are important within an ecosystem to achieve specific goals. Models provide a context in which data about the ecosystem can be interpreted, so that the data can be used for making decisions, performing operations, and implementing changes to the ecosystem.
However, in the diverse, complicated technology infrastructures in existence today, many complex subsystems interact to form a given information technology infrastructure. In such environments, a single model is typically unable to capture the complexity of such information processing systems. The models that do exist tend to capture data with regard to a single subsystem, and models typically are not compatible with one another. Furthermore, most models require data not readily available that must be gathered manually, which is a time-consuming process.
A solution is needed that enables the visualization, analysis, and operational automation of a complex information processing system. Preferably, the solution will provide the capability to model different functional aspects of a complex, heterogeneous information processing environment with multiple technological and informational goals. Preferably, the collection of data in an existing information system can be automated to facilitate the use of the same models in many heterogeneous information processing environments.